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Message:: [QUOTE="SuperDave, post: 2617504, member: 1892"]There's a big difference between polishing for initial die prep/touchups during the die's working life, and polishing to remove clashing. With the former, by definition you want to remove as little material as possible. With the latter, you must remove material. The only way to make a clash go away is to abrade the field until the clash is gone, and as any metalworker knows that sort of operation is best accomplished approaching from multiple angles. It's just like automotive bodywork - if you only sand in one direction, you wear a groove into the object. You have to come from multiple angles to keep a reasonable semblance of "level" on the surface. I'm inclined to think it's done by hand, at least from the evidence of the images we've posted here. A power tool would create multiple parallel scratches instead of the (relatively) individual ones we see in clash polishing, not to mentioned the quantity of curved lines which a rotary tool could only create if you were applying it end-on. And the possibility I mentioned of grooving the die is far greater with a power tool. Further, time is a factor in the operation - you want the die back in service as quickly as possible, unlike initial prep where you're stockpiling dies. So you need to do a lot of work quickly, under time pressure, which is reflected in the haphazard quality of what we're seeing here.[/QUOTE]